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REPORT  TO  THE  ANTI-DEBRIS  ASSOCIATION 


I 


FFE  T  OF  RESTRAINING  DAMS 


STATE    OF    CALIFOKNIA. 


THE   COMMISSIONER    OF    PUBLIC   WORKS. 


Printed  at  the  State  Printing  Office,  Sacramento. 
A.  J.  JOHNSTON,  Superintendent. 


SACRAMENTO,  March  26,  1896. 

To  his  Excellency  JAMES  H.  BUDD,  Governor  of  California: 

DEAR  SIR:  The  counties  of  Sacramento,Yolo,  Sutter,Yuba,  and  Colusa, 
represented  by  their  respective  Boards  of  Supervisors  in  an  organization 
known  as  the  State  Anti-Debris  Association,  whose  object  is  to  prevent 
injury  by  hydraulic  mining  to  the  navigable  streams  of  Northern  and 
Central  California,  and  to  adjacent  farming  lands,  respectfully  ask  that 
you  investigate,  in  accordance  with  law,  through  the  office  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Works,  whether  the  building  of  dams,  as  proposed 
by  measures  now  pending  in  Congress,  will  result  in  the  improvement 
of  the  rivers. 

We  would,  in  addition  to  the  above,  particularly  ask  that  a  report  be 
made  as  to  whether  existing  conditions  require  the  building  of  dams  as 
proposed  as  a  plan  of  river  improvement; 

Whether  the  same,  if  built,  would,  under  present  conditions,  result  in 
injury  to  the  rivers; 

Whether  the  material  they  were  once  intending  to  impound  has  not 
already  passed  the  point  where  such  dams  were  intended  to^be  built; 

Whether  it  would  be  safe  to  allow  hydraulic  mining  to  oe  carried  on 
behind  these  dams,  from  the  standpoint  of  river  preservation; 

Whether,  if  built,  successive  dams  would  not  have  to  be  built  if  hy- 
draulic mining  were  to  be  resumed. 

The  probable  cost  of  same,  and  any  other  fact  bearing  upon  the 
advisability  of  building  dams  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  navi- 
gable rivers. 

We  would  urge  that  a  report  be  made  as  speedily  as  possible,  as  we 
consider  the  information  desired  of  the  utmost  importance;  and  if  any 
of  the  matters  enumerated  would  require  much  time,  we  would  ask  that 
a  report  be  made  at  once  on  the  main  points  involved. 
Respectfully  yours, 

STATE  ANTI-DEBRIS  ASSOCIATION. 

J.  M.  MORRISON,  President. 
ROBERT  COSNER,  Secretary. 
ROBERT  T.  DEYLIN,  Attorney. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA,  j 

March  26,  1896.      \ 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works: 

Have  made  a  careful  and  impartial  investigation,    and   report   as 

speedily  as  possible  on  the  within. 

JAMES  H.  BUDD,  Governor. 


REPORT 


ON  THE 


EFFECT  OF  RESTRAINING  DAMS. 


To  his  Excellency  JAMES  H.  BUDD,  Governor  of  the  State  of  California: 

DEAR  Sm:  The  communication  addressed  to  you  by  the  Anti-Debris 
Association,  and  by  you  referred  to  this  office,  was  received  in  due  time. 
With  a  view  to  complying  with  your  direction,  as  far  as  practicable, 
Chief  Engineer  Price  and  Assistant  M.  A.  Nurse,  and  myself,  made  an 
examination  of  Yuba  River'  from  Marysville  to  Smartsville,  directing 
special  attention  to  the  sit^  of  the  proposed  dam  at  Daguerra  Point.  I 
herewith  submit  the  report  of  the  engineers.  Your  request  was  for  a 
careful  investigation.  It  was  impossible  to  furnish  all  the  information 
desired  in  the  allotted  time. 

All  the  diligence,  care,  and  thoroughness  that  was  possible  under  the 
circumstances  have  been  exercised. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

ED  E.  LEAKE, 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works. 


To  HON.  E.  E.  LEAKE,  Commissioner  of  Public  Works: 

SIR:  Herewith  we  present  our  report  upon  the  subject-matter  con- 
tained in  a  communication  signed  by  the  President,  Secretary,  and 
Attorney  of  the  State  Anti-Debris  Association,  dated  March  26,  1896,  a 
copy  of  which  is  herewith  transmitted. 

We  resolve  the  matter  into  the  following  questions,  to  wit: 

1.  Whether  the  building  of  dams,  as  proposed  by  measures  now  pend- 
ing in  Congress,  will  result  in  the  improvement  of  the  rivers. 

2.  Whether  existing  conditions  require  the  building  of  dams  as  pro- 
posed, as  a  plan  of  river  improvement. 

3.  Whether  the  same,  if  built,  would,  under  present  conditions,  result 
in  injury  to  the  rivers. 

4.  Whether  the  material  they  were  once  intended  to  impound  has  not 
already  passed  the  point  where  such  dams  were  intended  to  be  built. 

5.  Whether  it  would  be  safe  to  allow  hydraulic  mining  to  be  carried 
on  behind  such  dams,  from  the  standpoint  of  river  preservation. 

330847 


6.  Whether,  if  built,  successive  dams  would  not  have  to  be  built  if 
hydraulic  mining  were  to  be  resumed. 

T.  The  probable  cost  of  same,  and  any  other  fact  bearing  upon  the 
advisability  of  building  dams  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  navi- 
gable rivers. 

The  communication  closes  with  the  request  that,  if  much  time  should 
be  involved  in  the  investigation,  a  report  be  made  at  once  on  the  main 
points  involved. 

The  communication  was  forwarded  to  Governor  Budd,  and  was  by 
him  indorsed,  as  follows: 

"  Commissioner  of  Public  Works :  Have  made  a  careful  and  impartial 
investigation,  and  report  as  speedily  as  possible  on  the  within." 

The  Governor,  evidently  appreciating  the  vast  interests  involved  in 
the  solution  of  the  questions  propounded,  desires  a  "  careful  and  impar- 
tial investigation,"  and  has  by  this  procedure  shown  his  desire  to  injure 
no  person  or  persons,  but  to  give  equal  justice  to  all  interests  involved 
in  the  solution  of  one  of  the  most  perplexing  questions  before  the  people 
of  the  State  of  California. 

The  answers  to  the  various  questions  propounded  are  far-reaching, 
involving  a  knowledge  of  all  the  conditions  that  existed  before  hydraulic 
mining  was  commenced,  as  well  as  a  minute  detail  of  its  progress  and 
the  effects  it  has  produced  in  the  many  years  that  it  has  been  permitted 
to  continue,  and  the  effects  produced  by  its  cessation  in  18,85,  up  to  and 
including  the  present  time. 

They  further  involve  the  question  of  the  effect  of  restraining  dams, 
which  seem  to  be  the  panacea  offered  by  the  hydraulic  miner,  and  the 
ever-threatening  avalanche  to  the  farmer. 

To  give  an  intelligent  and  well-advised  answer  to  any  one  of  the  ques- 
tions propounded  would  require  the  collection  of  data  in  the  field,  which 
as  yet  has  not,  to  our  knowledge,  been  obtained.  The  only  official  data 
in  this  office  is  confined  to  the  very  excellent  work  of  State  Engineer 
William  Ham.  Hall  and  his  assistants.  So  far  as  the  work  was  prose- 
cuted under  that  eminent  engineer  and  his  very  eminent  advisers, 
Colonel  W.  H.  Mendell  and  James  B.  Eads,  it  is  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance. With  the  conclusion  of  the  labors  of  the  State  Engineer  the 
investigation  of  this  question  ceased,  so  far  as  the  State  is  concerned. 
We  therefore  have  no  official  data  with  which  to  frame  intelligent 
answers  to  the  questions  asked,  except  as  to  the  matter  above  mentioned. 

To  answer  all  the  questions  propounded  would  require  a  knowledge 
of  the  slopes  of  the  various  silt-bearing  streams  in  their  mountain 
reaches,  the  quantity  of  material  now  impounded  in  the  various  mount- 
ain gorges,  and  the  slope  obtained  by  virtue  of  the  flow  of  this  material. 
All  of  which  is  almost  totally  unknown,  except  so  far  as  personal  ob- 


servation  has  been  made  with  the  eye,  and  not  by  accurate  instrumental 
measurement. 

I.  The  first  question  is  rather  indefinite  in  construction,  not  having 
stated  whether  it  means  the  navigable  or  non-navigable  streams;  but  we 
shall  presume  that  it  is  intended  to  apply  to  navigable  streams.  As  an 
abstract  proposition,  we  may  say  that  any  impediment  to  the  flow  of 
silt  or  debris  into  a  stream,  which  is  permanent,  will  benefit  or  improve 
the  river  to  the  extent  of  its  storing  capacity.  We  are  not  advised  as  to 
the  character  of  the  construction  of  dams  as  proposed  by  measures  now 
pending  in  Congress.  At  no  point  on  the  navigable  streams  of  the  State 
are  we  informed  of  the  approach  of  any  coarse  mining  debris  into  the 
navigable  waters  thereof.  On  the  upper  Sacramento  River  the  gravel  or 
coarse  material  has  washed  down  stream  as  far  as  the  town  of  Colusa; 
but,  this  not  being  a  stream  subjected  to  the  effects  of  hydraulic  mining, 
we  shall  presume  that  the  question  does  not  apply  to  this  portion  of  the 
Sacramento  River.  It  may  be  true  that  a  portion  of  the  heavy  material 
from  hydraulic  mines  has  entered  the  valley  on  the  upper  portion  of  the 
Feather  River;  of  this,  however,  we  have  no  information  at  our  com- 
mand to  either  affirm  or  deny  the  proposition.  So  far  as  our  observa- 
tions extend,  the  greater  quantity  of  material  that  has  been  deposited 
in  the  navigable  streams  consists  of  light  sands  and  fine  silt.  Just  how 
far  this  class  of  material  can  be  restrained  is  a  question  which  no 
engineer  can  answer  without  the  data  at  hand  showing  the  restraining 
powers  of  dams  under  the  innumerable  conditions  that  may  govern  the 
case.  It  was  determined  by  Mr.  Hall,  in  his  observations  of  the  Feather 
River  in  1878,  that  not  less  than  90  per  cent  of  the  material  in  suspen- 
sion in  the  waters  of  this  river  was  deposited  immediately  upon  the 
waters  escaping  into  the  Sutter  Basin.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
these  escaping  waters  came  in  contact  with  a  larger  surface  of  frictional 
area,  the  velocity  was  immediately  checked,  and  the  power  of  the  water 
to  hold  the  material  in  suspension  was  at  once  very  materially  destroyed. 
We  may  therefore  conclude  that  a  dam  in  its  early.history  will  impound 
the  material  just  as  long  as  it  checks  the  velocity  of  the  stream,  and 
that  it  will  cease  to  deposit  matter  in  suspension  in  proportion  to  the 
increase  of  the  velocity  of  the  moving  water.  A  dam  will  produce  this 
effect  if  it  has  the  power  to  retain  its  material  until  filled  to  the  crest; 
but  as  soon  as  the  dam  is  filled,  then  the  waters  deposit  on  an  increas- 
ing incline  until  the  incline  becomes  so  steep  as  to  render  it  impossible 
for  either  the  material  in  suspension  or  that  rolling  on  the  bottom  of  the 
streams  to  remain  on  the  incline,  when  it  will  move  on  to  some  point 
where  the  resistance  of  the  power  to  move  the  material  equals  or  exceeds 
the  moving  force  or  impact  of  the  water.  You  will,  therefore,  perceive 
that  the  utility  of  dams  will  depend  upon  their  storing  capacity  and  the 
quantity  of  material  required  to  be  impounded. 


II.  We  answer  the  second  question  by  our  previous  statement  and  the 
facts  set  forth  in  the  answer  to  the  first  interrogative. 

III.  In  answer  to  the  third  question,  we  can  see  no  reason  why  dams 
in  themselves,  properly  constructed  on  the  non-navigable  rivers,  would 
injure  navigation  or  work  an  injury  to  the  streams;  provided  they  arc 
not  constructed  in  the  valley  regions.     Any  dam  that  would  raise  the 
bed  of  the  river  above  the  adjoining  lands  would  probably  result  in  new 
channel  formations,  which  might  divert  the  waters  to  valuable  lands, 
and  thereby  result  in  great  injury  to  drainage  as  well  as  to  property 
rights. 

IV.  We  presume  that  the  fourth  question  has  reference  to  the  days  of 
hydraulic  mining.     It  would  seem,  from  an  examination  of  Mr.  Hall's 
report,  that  he  was  dealing  with  an  existing  condition,  and  therefore 
suggested  the  best  remedy  his  knowledge  would  direct  for  a  remedy  of 
the  bad  effect  that  might  be  produced  by  a  continuation  of  hydraulic 
mining.     The  impounding   ability  of   the   various  mountain   streams 
having  been  exhausted  at  the  time  of  his  observations,  he  suggested  the 
only  plan  for  an  increase  of  the  reservoir  capacity — namely,  the  construc- 
tion of  dams.     Hydraulic  mining  was  enjoined  in  the  year  1885,  and  no 
extensive  hydraulic  mining  has  been  permitted  since  that  time.     The 
result  is,  that  during  the  successive  winter  seasons  intervening  between 
1885  and  the  present  time,  a  very  considerable  quantity  of  the  material 
deposited  in  the  higher  reaches  of  the  rivers  has  been  moved  down, 
approaching  every  year  the  gentler  slopes  of  the  watercourses.     From 
information  obtained  from  Mr.  Meek,  County  Surveyor  of  Yuba  County, 
we  are  authorized  to  say  that  no  material  change  in  the  elevation  of  the 
Yuba  River  channel,  between  Marysville  and  Daguerra  Point,  has  taken 
place  in  the  past  four  years.     Opinions  are  conflicting  as  to  the  location 
of  mining  detritus  in  the  mountain  streams,  and  as  we  have  not  had  the 
opportunity  to  investigate  the  subject,  we  can  give  no  reliable  information 
upon  the  subject.     The  indications  are  that  the  greater  quantity  of  the 
lighter  material  has  already  reached  the  valley,  but  just  how  much  still 
remains  in  the  streams  above,  to  be  attacked  and  moved  down  by  the 
winter  floods,  we  have  not  the  necessary  data  to  give  a  careful  and 
impartial  report. 

V.  From  the  standpoint  of  river  preservation,  we  would  say  that  any 
process  of  action,  either  natural  or  artificial,  that  will  increase  the  mat- 
ter in  suspension  in  silt-bearing  streams,  will,  in  a  corresponding  degree, 
retard  the  scouring  force  of  the  water,  and  thereby  injure  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  capacity  and  navigability  of  the  rivers.     It  is,  therefore,  a 
question  that  must  be  answered  by  the  effect  produced  by  dams  as  to 
whether  hydraulic  mining  can  be  carried  on  behind  them  without  injury 


7  

to  the  navigable  streams.  From  our  knowledge  of  the  forces  that  are 
now  acting  on  the  navigable  streams  of  the  State  of  California,  and  the 
effects  produced  by  floods,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  rivers 
be  assisted,  in  every  manner  possible,  to  scour  out  the  already  formidable 
silt  deposits  that  are  now  in  them. 

VI.  If  hydraulic  mining  is  to  be  resumed  and  the  material  restrained, 
undoubtedly  a  series  of  dams  must  be  constructed,  in  order  that  any 
very  material  part  of  the  detritus  shall  be  restrained. 

VII.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  give  a  reasonable  estimate*  of  the  cost 
of  constructing  dams  if  hydraulic  mining  is  to  be  resumed.     No  dam 
should  be  constructed  that  will  not  be  permanent  and  lasting  as  time 
itself.     The  conditions  surrounding  the  location  will  therefore  govern 
the  cost  of  construction.     A  repetition  of  the  construction  of  dams  upon 
the  same  plan  as  advised  and  built  by  State  Engineer  William  Ham. 
Hall  would,  in  our  opinion,  be  far  from  meeting  the  requirements  of  the 
case,  and  should  any  be  constructed  the  work  should  be  under  and  by  the 
advice  of  the  best  engineering  skill.     An  intelligent  and  safe  opinion  as 
to  the  manner  of  constructing  dams  can  only  be  given  after  a  thorough 
survey  and  investigation  of  the  conditions  to  be  satisfied,  which  would 
require  many  months  of  labor  in  the  field  accumulating  data  at  present 
not  at  hand.     It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  necessary  data  has  not  been 
obtained,  and  herein  lies  the  importance  of  a  constant  investigation  of 
the  subject,  in  order  that  a  just  and  reasonable  solution  of  the  problem 
might  at  this  time  be  presented. 

Very  respectfully  submitted. 

J.  R.  PRICE, 
Chief  Engineer  to  Commissioner  of  Public  Works. 

M.  A.  NURSE, 

Assistant  Engineer. 


